She stayed in Berlin through the Nazis and the Communists, and only left when the violence of street gangs finally entered her house.

She was a man.

Doug Wright’s play “I Am My Own Wife” is a peculiar history of Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, nee Lothar Berfelde.

What makes the show … which is opening Barrington Stage Company’s 2008 season in its newly completed Stage II space … peculiar is not so much its main character’s transvestism, gender identification or sexuality, but Wright’s serpentine method of storytelling.

In its way, “I Am My Own Wife” is as much about writing a play as it is about von Mahlsdorf.

After a writer friend in Germany tips Wright off to von Mahlsdorf’s curious existence, he visits her Grunderzeit Museum, but he is even more impressed by von Mahlsdorf than by her collection.

“She doesn’t run a museum,” Wright says, “she is one.”

The play, which features only one actor, boasts a multiplicity of roles, including Wright and von Mahlsdorf.

At BSC, Vince Gatton is that actor and he does an excellent job of rendering each person … be they a prison guard, a supportive and equally eccentric aunt, or a fellow antique dealer – quickly, wholly and believably.

The task requires magnetism and Gatton … who also played multiple roles for the company in “Fully Committed” … has it.

Director Andrew Volkoff (who also helmed “Committed”) navigates Gatton through the text, establishing jazzlike rhythms that crash flurries of words into generous pauses that allow the audience to process the flood of information.

Brian Prather’s set … a collection of pieces suggestive of the museum without cluttering the playing space … functions as another character, as do the miniatures created by Paul Eric Pape.

The latter almost magically evoke both the sprawl of von Mahlsdorf’s collection and the claustrophobia of her situation.

The first act of the play lures the viewer into von Mahlsdorf’s mysterious but charming world, only hinting at her complexities (including the murder of her abusive father).

The second fairly explodes with controversy as von Mahlsdorf becomes a celebrity and national hero before being exposed as a collaborator with the Russian secret police (the Stasi) during the Cold War.

Wright includes his own reflections and feelings on learning of von Mahlsdorf’s alleged complicity.

“Wife” is a challenging piece of theater that asks many questions while providing few answers.

It ends beautifully, with Wright becoming a curator of his subject’s life, much as she was of a sliver of German history.

He loops back to quote von Mahlsdorf noting that antiques must be kept intact … nicks, scratches, damage and all.

And so he does with Charlotte, damage and all.

Michael Eck, a freelance writer from Albany, is a regular contributor to the Times Union.